The field of the present invention relates to optical devices incorporating distributed optical structures. In particular, distributed optical structures designed by computed interference between simulated optical signals and formed in or on a transmission grating are disclosed herein.
One or more distributed optical structures (i.e., sets of diffractive elements) in a transmission grating can be used in a variety of devices for spectral filtering, laser frequency control, spectral multiplexing, optical sensing, or other functions. It is often desirable that such devices be optimized, or nearly so, for routing, mapping, or coupling optical signals between input and output optical ports with minimal optical loss. Distributed optical structures designed by computed interference between simulated optical signals and formed in or on a transmission grating are disclosed herein that may enable such optimized routing, coupling, or mapping.
Various embodiments, implementations, and adaptations of diffractive element sets are disclosed in:                application Ser. No. 11/423,856 filed Jun. 13, 2006(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,224,867);        application Ser. No. 11/277,491 filed Mar. 25, 2006(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,190,856);        application Ser. No. 11/277,423 filed Mar. 24, 2005;        application Ser. No. 11/383,494 filed May 16, 2006(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,203,401);        application Ser. No. 11/376,714 filed Mar. 14, 2006;(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,349,599);        application Ser. No. 11/371,339 filed Mar. 7, 2006(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,327,908);        application Ser. No. 11/361,407 filed Feb. 23, 2006(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,116,453;        application Ser. No. 11/334,039 filed Jan. 17, 2006;        application Ser. No. 11/298,290 filed Dec. 9, 2005(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,330,614);        
application Ser. No. 11/280,876 filed Nov. 15, 2005;                application Ser. No. 11/239,540 filed Sep. 28, 2005 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,009,743);        application Ser. No. 11/213,345 filed Aug. 25, 2005(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,120,334);        application Ser. No. 11/210,439 filed Aug. 23, 2005; (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,359,597);        application Ser. No. 11/155,327 filed Jun. 16, 2005(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,190,858);        application Ser. No. 11/076,251 filed Mar. 8, 2005 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,128);        application Ser. No. 11/062,109 filed Feb. 17, 2005(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,181,103);        application Ser. No. 11/055,559 filed Feb. 9, 2005(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,794);        application Ser. No. 11/021,549 filed Dec. 23, 2004(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,260,290);        application Ser. No. 10/998,185 filed Nov. 26, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,993,223);        application Ser. No. 10/989,244 filed Nov. 15, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,961,491);        application Ser. No. 10/989,236 filed Nov. 15, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,965,716);        application Ser. No. 10/923,455 filed Aug. 21, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,054,517);        application Ser. No. 10/898,527 filed Jul. 22, 2004(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,194,164);        application Ser. No. 10/857,987 filed May 29, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,990,276);        application Ser. No. 10/842,790 filed May 11, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,987,911);        application Ser. No. 10/798,089 filed Mar. 10, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,115);        application Ser. No. 10/794,634 filed Mar. 5, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,985,656);        application Ser. No. 10/740,194 filed Dec. 17, 2003(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,224,855);        application Ser. No. 10/653,876 filed Sep. 2, 2003 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,417);        application Ser. No. 10/602,327 filed Jun. 23, 2003 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,318);        application Ser. No. 10/229,444 filed Aug. 27, 2002 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,429);        application Ser. No. 09/843,597 filed Apr. 26, 2001 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,965,464); and        application Ser. No. 09/811,081 filed Mar. 16, 2001 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,879,441).        
These reference indicate the state of the art available for forming diffractive elements, and may be applicable to formation of diffractive elements of a transmission grating according to the present disclosure. A publication entitled “Planar holographic optical processing devices” (T. W. Mossberg, Opt. Lett. 26 414 (2001)) is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
For one or more of the references listed hereinabove, it may be the case that the devices, structures, embodiments, implementations, adaptations, procedures, or techniques disclosed therein may be employed, within the scope of the present disclosure or appended claims, for implementing a transmission grating.